Top ten ways to secure a buyers list?
I have been reviewing the suggestion for creating a buyers list. I have seen some very good ideas.
I am thinking about gathering all the suggestions and making a list of the top ten (maybe more) and posting back to the forum.
Would anybody have a problem with me doing this?
This thread is excellent! I will be attending my first REI club meeting in a few days.
Wow this thread has been going on for almost two years and still great and relevant information. Good going guys!
I have a few to add to the list -
-Any type of real estate auction - not only commissioner's sales are good for finding other investors.
-Hard money lenders. You can find these in your local REIA group.
-Your closing attorney (or title company), insurance agent or other folks that work with other investor buyers.
-We have a local bank that does a lot of investor deals. They know which investors they are loaning money to. They won't give you a list, but they will pass along your contact info. They may also be an investor themselves.
-Social Media - Especially Facebook. Always put your deals on Facebook. If they don't buy that particular house, you can still add them to your buyer's list for future deals.
-Make up a "hand made" corrugated sign with your phone number that says something like "Must sell - Cheap- Cash" when you have a house to sell. Put it up in the area where the house is located. I can promise you, you will get calls.
-Finally- I do a lot of direct mail to absentee owners. Think about putting something at the bottom of your regular letter to indicate that if they don't want to sell but might be interested in acquiring additional properties they can also contact you.
Hello All!! So I know this information is on this site a lot but I figured I would mention it again in case some haven't seen it yet. When you're calling people as ask if they would want to be on your buyer list, ALSO tell them that you sell properties as well.
I'm wholesaling and my strategy so far (I'm a nube but getting close to closing my firsat deal every day:) ) is calling for rent ads I see in the paper. It wasn't until the last few calls that I started mentioning that I facilitate the buying as well as the selling of porperties. I now have 3 sellers on my list, 2 of which are seriously motivated. I never would have learned that they needed to sell their properties unless I told them that I could help with that process.
I hope this helps anyone who sees it and for all of you who already knew this information, good for you and keep kickin' some investing butt ;)
Kim
Bump...I could not let such a great topic get lost Great info!
This is definitely a must read for anyone interested in wholesaling property. A buyers list is an important part of being a good wholesaler.
Steve Babiak recently started a thread bringing much of this information together. Well worth reading if you haven't yet.
I have enjoyed this thread.
Excellent thread, especially for a newbie like me. So helpful. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Linda
What a great thread! Thanks to everyone for their contributions.
-Kathy
I started out to ask a question I got lost reading this thread from start to finish for the last 40 minutes, this is just what I needed. Thanks
Michelle
Don't forget to check out the "sticky" thread(s) at the top of this forum:
I enjoyed reading this thread so much. Thanks to all the guys&gals for there input. Would like to hear some updates on how people made out...
Hello Namon:
It is very thoughtful of you to create the list, I am new to this forum and look forward to all aspects of streamlining deals. All the best with your deals going forward.
useful post...(bump) thx for sharing!
also another useful thread:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/54108-buyer-s-list-how-to-
Reviving this thread:
So if you cannot gain access to the 45 of MLS properties, can you just use the deals you found instead? (Sorry if that sounds crazy)
Also @Dustin Phillips , are you still using the squeeze page and Craigslist html? I would love to snag that information from you. Also, after the squeeze page does it go right into your regular site with the listing, which is also with moonfruit?
For Everyone: As far as working with a realtor for a listing of houses or buyers, is there a trick to get them to work with you or is picking the right one the name of the game?
this is a fantastics post! Thank you!
Originally posted by @Shante Harris:For Everyone: As far as working with a realtor for a listing of houses or buyers, is there a trick to get them to work with you or is picking the right one the name of the game?
Make them money. Start with the realtor you bought your house from. If thats not possible, a $50 bill works wonders.
Hi Eric,
Great information and detail examples. Are you using this strategy in other states as well?
Originally posted by @Eric Medemar:
This may be posted somewhere but I don't know how to find it. Anyway. Here is my contribution. There are a couple of other ways up my sleeve but if I told you I would have to kill you lol.
I get email virtually every day from people who want to know where to find buyers for their wholesale deals. I see countless posts on here of people asking where to find buyers. So I figured I would put together most of the ideas that I have used or have seen used for finding buyers into a single post.
I am sure there are countless other places and ways to find buyers beyond what I am mentioning, so I will leave it up to other people to fill in the blanks that I have missed.
Keep in mind these are ways that I or my clients have actually used, so I know that they work because I have done it.
1. We Buy Houses Signs I call every single one of these signs that I see, I actually keep a note book full of numbers and info that I find out about these companies when I call.
I usually ask them whether they are still buying, what they are looking for, what percentage up FMV they are typically paying, and what areas of town they want to buy in.
While I have them on the phone I also ask them if they wholesale out any of their homes, if they do then I ask them to call me when they have something good. I tell them that if the deal is right I can close in less than 2 weeks with cash.(I can do this because I have other buyers already in place to buy their deals, sometimes these buyers could be other cash for your house buyers)
Here is a sample of a deal that I put together using this.
1. I called a we buy houses sign
2. Found out where they were looking
3. Put a home under contract for $52k in that area
4. Called them and let them know.
5. I signed a 6 month lease option with them for $64k
6. I closed the home.
7. The lease option started
8. He sold the home
9. We close this week, I make about $12,000 (I also made commission when I bought the house, because im a realtor)
10. He makes around $12k.
11. Were all happy.2. Call realtors I call realtors and find out if they have any cash buyers that are looking to buy some wholesale deals. It varies on what I offer to pay them but typically I offer 10%-20% of my profit, or a flat 2-3% fee, each time the buyer they have given me buys a home. It creates a win- win, I get a buyer and they get paid whenever their buyer buys a home.
I offer the continuous pay because a realtors worst fear is that they give you a buyer and he buys from you, then when they have a good property to show their buyers they cant buy because they have already purchased from you.
If the realtors dont have cash buyers, I tell them that if they bump into any great deals, they should call me and if the deals good enough we can buy with cash and close in less than 2 weeks.( Often times you can use other realtors buyers to buy another realtors house and you can make money setting the two up)
An example of one of my clients deals that he ran this way.
1. I called my client about a great HUD deal
2. He liked the deal and put the home under contract for $115k (I made a $4800 commission on the home when it closed so I was happy)
3. We had 60 days to close the HUD home so he started calling realtors
4. He found a realtor with a cash buyer that was willing to pay $122,000
5. We assigned the contract (this is a secret)
6. We went to closing and his buyer brought $122,000 cashiers check.
7. My buyer left with a check for $7,000 ( he used none of his own money, and I found him the house so he was happy)
8. I left with my $4800 commission
9. The realtor who brought the buyer took no commission but got a commitment from his buyer that he would list the home with him when he sold it.3. Newspaper ads I dont personally use this one, I have clients who have had great success with it though. They simply place a small classified ad that reads "Looking for buyers to purchase homes at 50-70% of true value"
I have picked up endless buyers with this ad though "Free List of 45 foreclosed/distressed homes" call or visit www.$$.com. The reason that I have had so much success with this ad is because anyone thinking of buying real estate would much rather get a free list of 45 then have to call each individual ad. You can have a local realtor put together a list of properties for you and email them to you if you cant find your own. Then take the list that they send you and email it out to people that respond to your ad. Keep in mind you dont really care about the list that you send, you care about getting the name, phone number, and buying qualifications of responding buyers.
A real life example.
1. I placed my free list ad
2. I got about 30 responses for the month
3. Found one buyer who has paid me over $75,000 in commisions over the next 3 years on deals I brought him.These were realtor commissions, but if you can find a buyer who is taking the kind of action he was you could seriously line your pockets wholesaling to him.
4. HUD homes this is my own technique that I started using to get buyers just for my realtor purposes. Watch for a great deal on a HUD home or any great deal for that matter, then park outside for a few hours and talk to the people going to check out the home. Most of the areas investors will find there way to the property and you can give them your card and be sure to get there info. Tell them that you run into alot of deals and ask them if they would like you to give them a call when you run into something decent.
A personal example.
1. I went to look at a good HUD home that I was going to buy myself.
2. The neighbor came over and wanted to see the home while I was there.
3. I showed him the home and he ended up buying it from me.
4. I ended up making $2500 in commission on it.If I were not a realtor, I would have simply talked to him and found out what he was willing to pay, then wrote up a wholesale contract, then put the home under contract with HUD, then played the spread.
This was my most recent deal, but I have picked up endless buyers for other homes while parked outside of HUD homes. I call it hunting for buyers. Its kind of like deer hunting with a bait pile. The home is the bait pile and the buyers are all coming to eat.
4. Talk to your current buyers buyer typically know other buyers, ask your buyers if they know of anyone else who is buying (let them know you will only call the referal if they are passing on the property). You also might offer to pay your buyer for a referall fee if one of there people end up buying a house from you. This technique also works great if you have a buyer that only wants to buy in a certain area, then you can call their referall if you have a home outside that area.
Personal example.
1. One of my buyers had too many homes and could not buy.
2. I asked him if he knew anyone else who might be interested.
3. He gave me the number to a cousin who was an even bigger investor
4. I ended up selling 3 homes to his cousin this year, and paid him a referal for each one.5. Local REI meetings If you have a local investor club join it, if you dont then start one. It kind of speaks for itself that this is where many great buyers will be. Just be sure you know a fair bit about what you are doing before talking to very many people about potential deals. The last thing you want to do is burn alot of bridges by showing your new found buyers a bunch of crap.
6. Birddogs for buyers Outside of having bird dogs look for homes for you, you can also have them look for buyers for you. Give them your cards and have them hand them out to people they might meet that are looking to get into real estate investing.
7. Brochure Boxes Just like realtors use brochure boxes you can use them to. If you have a property to move leave a brochure box that talks minimally about the property that it is left at, always be sure to leave out pertitant info like price, sqft, or bed/baths. If you give all the info away then people will never call you about the property. Focus the brochure mainly on other potential deals in the area or say that you are looking for buyers for properties at 50-70%FMV.
8. Out of towner and landlords Many people sell themselves short when they are dialing for dollars. Typically people call or mail out of town owners and other landlords to see if they want to sell. The funny part is if they dont want to sell then there is a chance that they want to buy, so ask them if they arent selling, then would they like to buy some more, or if your mailing then include buying info on your mailer as well.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Thank you soooooooo much everyone for your post on how to build a buyers list.
Sir. Eric Medemar::Yours is the best that I have read so far and even though it's been 6 - 7 years since you've posted it. I've paid for information on how to build a buyers list and nothing comes close to yours.....I should have found your post 6 - 7 years ago and Paid you instead.
Thank You so much,
God Bless
@Amy Mendez check it out
Originally posted by @Dustin Phillips:
So I've been wholesaling a while and most of these I've done, but I did learn a few new techniques this morning.
Today I decided to spend some time trying just two of these and so far, its about 3:30pm i think.. I have picked up 4 new buyers!
that is 4 buyers in 5 hours.... Most have been from the free 45 property report that Eric suggested...
Here is how I did it....
I went to moonfruit and created a free squeeze page- it took 20 minutes to do and with a little html (No html need to create a squeeze page) was able to create a craigslist ad without the crazy url showing!
I then found 45 properties on the MLS (not a realtor but have access through a friend) and presto chango done!
You can PM me and I will send you the link to my squeeze page, copy it if you like, and I will send you the html code to hide your url (you will just have clickable text on craigslist)...
Great thread and thanks for another awsome post on THE B.P NATION
I know this is a old post but I'd you will still be able to send info, I would greatly appreciate it!!!!